Big Tobacco

From the very moment Big Tobacco agreed to pay Congress $300 billion in return for minimal protection against lawsuits, the tobacco companies had been silent in the face of unrelenting criticism. But now they've decided it isn't worth it. They're fighting. What did it? What finally pushed the tobacco companies over the line? Maybe it was President Clinton. In a uniquely Clintonian speech, the president assured tobacco farmers and companies that he wasn't out to ruin their livelihoods, then went on to explain that the $506 billion in punitive damages - yes, it magically drifted up $206 billion since the original agreement - wasn't enough.

Tobacco's grip This letter is addressed to the editor - but also to undecided voters who supported the ban on smoking in Virginia restaurants. After four years of struggling against legislators who defied the public will, public health prevailed over the nicotine lobby. As a state senator, Creigh Deeds voted for the smoking ban. Voters should understand that Bob McDonnell opposed this legislation despite the overwhelming support of Virginians. No surprise, since he consistently protected Big Tobacco throughout his legislative career.

In September, three overweight New York City teenagers brought suit against McDonald's, charging that deceptive advertising led them into a dangerously overweight lifestyle of Big Macs and supersized fries. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the case a few weeks ago, but we haven't heard the last of it, warns the youths' lawyer. Indeed, folks are beginning to wonder: Will Big Fat be the next Big Tobacco? Obesity is becoming a major epidemic. The surgeon general's report last year linked obesity to 300,000 deaths and $117 billion in health-care costs.

So this could be it - the year Virginia lawmakers grow cojones bigger than Big Tobacco's. The year our General Assembly finally bans smoking in certain bars and restaurants. The year you can walk into any family joint in the Old Dominion and not have to choke down with your burger or broiled salmon more than 4,000 airborne chemicals wafting over from the smokers next to you. I don't mean to revel. Especially when there are tons of addicts out there in a world of hurt over the prospect of losing ever more square footage of public space in which to indulge a nasty habit that's got them by the ... well, let's stick with cojones.

Faced with their gravest legal and political threat, America's tobacco companies are pondering what they long considered unthinkable: whether to submit to extensive federal regulation and pay out billions of dollars in a gamble that they hope will make even greater future profits, according to financial analysts, legal experts and anti-smoking activists. Money is the crucial factor compelling the companies to enter secret negotiations with their opponents in which the fate of Big Tobacco and the future of the country's number one public health problem are both at stake.

One more smoking gun It's a mystery how executives for big tobacco companies can sleep at night. The Associated Press recently reported the latest outrage. Richmond-based Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco of North Carolina have spent millions to kill ballot measures in states where voters might opt for steep increases in cigarette taxes or restrictions that would broadly curtail smoking in public places. Given executives' hair-shirt assurances that Big Tobacco really, really cares about the customers who inhale their cancer sticks, industry attempts to thwart public-space smoking bans are especially galling.

Philip Morris USA, the nation's biggest tobacco company, has offered important concessions aimed at reducing cigarette use by children. The company says it will support curbs on advertising and a ban on cigarette vending machines if - and it's a big if - the Food and Drug Administration is barred from regulating tobacco products. If the offer had come 10 years ago, it would have been too good to pass up. But big tobacco is now on the defensive. The government should reject this conditional offer and push for tougher restrictions aimed at protecting minors.

Zero tolerance: This case has drawn local and national attention: Kecoughtan High School junior Paul Hogge will be suspended from Kecoughtan High School until Jan. 28 for having pocketknives in the glove compartment of his car. The controversy over how far is too far in schools' zero tolerance policies lands it on Page One. Mr. Christmas: People visit Colonial Williamsburg at Christmas time the way others go home. In that holiday spirit, here's a front-page story about a man - dubbed Mr. Christmas by his coworkers - who painstakingly decorates 17 trees, mostly in and around the Williamsburg Lodge and Inn. NASCAR tradition: Here's a story that has the region's NASCAR fans exulting.

There's one good thing to be said about Gov. Jim Gilmore's decision to join the other states accepting Big Tobacco's buyout: A cigarette tax finally succeeded in pro-smoke Virginia. That's what this deal amounts to: a tax on smokers, engineered and collected by the tobacco companies. That's not what they call it, but it works about the same: The tobacco companies pay the states $206 billion over 25 years, which they transfer from smokers through the price increase essentially built into the deal.

Tobacco's grip This letter is addressed to the editor - but also to undecided voters who supported the ban on smoking in Virginia restaurants. After four years of struggling against legislators who defied the public will, public health prevailed over the nicotine lobby. As a state senator, Creigh Deeds voted for the smoking ban. Voters should understand that Bob McDonnell opposed this legislation despite the overwhelming support of Virginians. No surprise, since he consistently protected Big Tobacco throughout his legislative career.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is trying to quit smoking. There are, of course, many good reasons to. He will significantly reduce his own risk of serious disease and that of those around him by not smoking. But clearly, one of the reasons Obama wants to quit now -- beyond pressure from his wife -- is that it would be widely perceived as unseemly and inappropriate to have a smoker in the White House. Smoking has become a marginalized and often stigmatized behavior, a sign of personal weakness -- which just won't do in a presidential candidate these days.

One more smoking gun It's a mystery how executives for big tobacco companies can sleep at night. The Associated Press recently reported the latest outrage. Richmond-based Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco of North Carolina have spent millions to kill ballot measures in states where voters might opt for steep increases in cigarette taxes or restrictions that would broadly curtail smoking in public places. Given executives' hair-shirt assurances that Big Tobacco really, really cares about the customers who inhale their cancer sticks, industry attempts to thwart public-space smoking bans are especially galling.

If anyone should be at the big, splashy, national obesity summit in Williamsburg right now, it's the top "obesity guy" in Virginia. He's not. Why? Because at $1,500 a pop for registration, plus $400 hotel rooms in an upscale Colonial Williamsburg Foundation hotel, the state simply couldn't afford to send him. "I said I'd help pour tea, whatever you'd like me to do," joked Jeremy Akers, healthy weight coordinator with the state health department. They declined. Akers is known as the state's obesity guy not just for his job title, but also because he's always prodding coworkers to do annoying, healthy things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

The ubiquitous red-black-and-white blur soon will disappear, marking the end of a cozy 32-year marriage between two corporate icons. Big Tobacco and Big Cars will say goodbye on friendly terms, each feeling giddy with the divorce settlement. NASCAR rose to national prominence with the tobacco money, estimated at $50 million in yearly sponsorship approaching the new millennium. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. found a way to effectively circumvent a cigarette advertisement ban passed by Congress in 1970.

In September, three overweight New York City teenagers brought suit against McDonald's, charging that deceptive advertising led them into a dangerously overweight lifestyle of Big Macs and supersized fries. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the case a few weeks ago, but we haven't heard the last of it, warns the youths' lawyer. Indeed, folks are beginning to wonder: Will Big Fat be the next Big Tobacco? Obesity is becoming a major epidemic. The surgeon general's report last year linked obesity to 300,000 deaths and $117 billion in health-care costs.

Zero tolerance: This case has drawn local and national attention: Kecoughtan High School junior Paul Hogge will be suspended from Kecoughtan High School until Jan. 28 for having pocketknives in the glove compartment of his car. The controversy over how far is too far in schools' zero tolerance policies lands it on Page One. Mr. Christmas: People visit Colonial Williamsburg at Christmas time the way others go home. In that holiday spirit, here's a front-page story about a man - dubbed Mr. Christmas by his coworkers - who painstakingly decorates 17 trees, mostly in and around the Williamsburg Lodge and Inn. NASCAR tradition: Here's a story that has the region's NASCAR fans exulting.

Once again American taxpayers are being duped by the people they elect to represent their interests in Washington. And once again, the taxpayers' loss will be the big tobacco companies' gain. First the tobacco companies, in an agreement to settle lawsuits filed by state governments, said they would pay $368 billion to cover the medical costs of smokers. But even before the offer could be analyzed and accepted, Congress found a way to give some of the money back. Last week Congress passed a bill that would cut many tax rates while raising taxes on cigarettes.

After decades of being litigation-proof, the big tobacco companies are now threatened with mammoth financial losses as they are forced to settle lawsuits. From states seeking reimbursement for indigent health care costs to airline flight attendants suing for exposure to secondhand smoke, the companies are no longer invulnerable. The companies have agreed to pay Mississippi $3.6 billion and Florida $11 billion. They agreed last week to provide $300 million to establish a foundation to study diseases associated with tobacco smoke.

There's one good thing to be said about Gov. Jim Gilmore's decision to join the other states accepting Big Tobacco's buyout: A cigarette tax finally succeeded in pro-smoke Virginia. That's what this deal amounts to: a tax on smokers, engineered and collected by the tobacco companies. That's not what they call it, but it works about the same: The tobacco companies pay the states $206 billion over 25 years, which they transfer from smokers through the price increase essentially built into the deal.